This is a space for in-character events that do not occur within the line of duty and/or did not fit into the "Daily Life" section as it played out. Threads herein are meant to supplement character development and flesh out the setting elements, but are not necessary to understanding the plot or characters involved. These events are to be considered canon unless otherwise noted.

The deck 12 advanced holographics training facility is a work of technological genius. Made using the same hologram systems that allow Terran spies to assume a solid Drathonian form, the hologram room houses the largest emitter system ever built on a starship. The energy output required to power it is so immense that the ship cannot be in combat while it is on. An emergency failsafe protocol immediately reroutes power from the facility in this event.

The training facility can be used for any number of a variety of programs. Most often it is used by the special ops marines to practice carefully planned infiltration missions. Infamously, however, the hologram decks are illegally used as a form of entertainment for the crew. Computer technicians often hack the systems and install their own maps, thus making the possibilities in the facility endless. Amongst crew favorites are luxurious vacation resorts, videogame-like FPS simulations, and practically every famous landmark on the now-desolate Earth.

The room flashed on and off several times, changing a little bit each time before the override authenticated; when it finished, it revealed a detailed map of a section of the capital city on Drathos, all decked out for war. Most of the buildings were completely or partially destroyed, rubble everywhere. Here and there were fortified positions, hidden passages, underground chambers, secret weapons stashes. One side of the map was lined with Terran dropships, all in varying states of disrepair, most still functional, this would be the Terran spawn point. the Drathonians would spawn anywhere and everywhere they could, IE; Anywherew not controlled by terrans, which, at the beginning, was most of the map. Protocol 'C' meant that this was the late stages in the war, Terran technology was at it's height, drathonians in a stubborn Guerilla war to take back their planet. The Terrans would be outfitted with working examples of the Powered Armour systems, which, at the moment, were still merely computerized prototypes, not even physical yet. there were two choices: A melee version, with heightened speed and strength, and a sniper version, with extreme precision and deadly accuracy.

Kai Nakamura entered into the simulator, turned around at the door and said to the crowd "Who wants to help me clean out hell?"

Jack Gallagher laughed heartily as he stepped through the doorway, pushing into the front of the line. "Only 1,000? C'mon, that's not even enough for me to take on by myself! Let me up the ante a bit." Jack strolled over to the computer terminal and accessed the battle data.

Jack gave a wide grin as the computer confirmed his entry. He wasn't a wiz with computer hacking, but he knew enough to bump up the difficulty a bit. Now that the lizards had the comprehensive knowledge of standard Terran infantry tactics that only a computer could have, the battle would indeed be more challenging. "There. That'll force us to get a bit more creative." Jack smiled at Kai devilishly as he walked over to the nearest dropship, strapping into his custom hotrod red Powered Melee Armour suit. "Shall we begin, then?" He gave a bit of a maniacal laugh as he moved into position for the simulation to begin.

"Okay, okay, guys. We have all had our laughs for today. Now If you'd please let me by," Steven said calmly as he was being backed into a corner by four marines, "aren't we all a little old for a bully/bullied relationship."
"Ha! Listen to this boys! The flyboy's scared!" a rugged looking marines said to his friends with a deep snort. "Not so tough when you are out of your ship now are you?" The four marines continued to close in on Steven as he did his best to keep his cool. When there was no more than a foot or two between Steven and the marines, the grunts rushed him.
Now Steven was struggling as two of the marines began dragging him down the hallway while the other two covered them. "Now we, being the nice men we are, are going to help teach you how to fend for yourself when out of your fighter," the one marine said to him which caused the other three to begin laughing. Steven gulped as he heard a growing noise from behind him. It was a crowd gathering. "Oh they must all be here for my public hanging," Steven chided himself as he gave up trying to fight the men. Now he was being drug through the small crowd of marines. Steven, still lost in thought, was surprised when his captors hoisted him up, waved goodbye to him and shoved him through an opening.
"Stupid jarheads!" he said as he sat up. When he got up and looked around he was left speechless. His captors were no longer visible, and were replaced by armored marines totting guns, what was worse was that he himself was in a battle suit with a gun by his side. "My god! I have died and gone to Hell! I am a jarhead!" he shouted in dismay.

Jack, still standing near the entry, gave a short snigger. "Jarheads? Hahaha, please, I don't even wear a helmet half the time. I guess they should call us shiffer brains." Jack gave a devilish little grin as he approached Steven and offered him an arm to get up. "You're right about one thing: this is Hell (except for me! It's freakin heaven!), Kai hacked the holodeck and we're running a simulation of the invasion of Drathos. Care to join us?" The sly grin on Jack's face implied that he would be deeply insulted if anyone would turn down an opportunity to kill some lizards.

Overhead, a loud ding could be heard. '60 seconds until simulation begins.' The electronic ring of the computers voice made a shiver of joy run down Jacks spine.

Kai chuckled at Jack's changes, thinking to himself "figures he'd do something like that" before selecting an urban camo scheme for his TA-A1 Armour system.

Seeing someone get thrown in, his info suddenly appeared on the HUD "Ah, Steven Kerning, nice to see you again. It's been too long since we rescued you. Those guys must have had a good idea, throwing you in here." He chuckled a bit, and removed the helmet of his suit, revealing long blond hair, neatly tied up in a small ponytail to keep it out of the way. for once the scar running down his eye was visible. "I think we need to ask high command to require more survival skills for pilots, but i think this sim should work for now"

At the computerized voice he walked to the door, and called out "LAST CALL! I won't run this sim again for a month at least!"

"So by simulation you mean as in it is pretty much all holograms in here? Oh! so it is just like laser tag," Steven replied to Kai as he took Jack's hand, "I mean, a holograms never hurt anyone, right?" Brushing himself off he looked around at his surroundings, amazed at the detail of the room. "It is almost like the real thing, breeze and all. Plus some combat training wouldn't hurt. Let's do it!"

Jack smiled as the last wave of marines shoved their way frantically through the door, fighting each other to get through at the same time. He was in a state of somewhat neurotic glee as he grabbed up a sugar rifle and headed for the front lines. As he strolled past everyone in his bright red armor, they couldn't help but snigger. "There goes private Orko McLunatic." somebody muttered. Jack turned and gave a wild grin to the man, who almost pissed his pants.

Terran starting territory was marked by a remarkably unrealistic dotted blue line that ended along a crumpled wall leading into the city. The immobile, inactive Drathonian NPCs stood frozen in their positions, a few visible over the top of the wall. The fizzy computer voice came over the com once again. "Simulation commencing in 10... 9... 8... 7..." Jack looked out over the crowd of men behind him. Now, remember," he yelled, "the first 1,000 kills are reserved for me."

Steven strolled up beside Jack, hefted his Sugar into the air, and let out a boom shout. Completely unaware of the fact that he still could feel pain, he anxiously awaited the start of the simulation. "Back home I used to be a whiz at first person shooters, ya know?" Steven said nudging Jack a little, "Of course I liked flight simulators more, and then there was billiards..." Shutting himself up he gave an awkward cough and gripped his gun as the count down started.

The door finally closed shut. A countdown begin in all the HUD's, starting at ten.

Hailing everyone, Kai yelled into the comms "BATTLE POSITIONS! PLAN A, Brawlers, ready yourselves, snipers, keep those idiots alive!" With that he took up a position behind Jack, linking their two armors as a team. he crouched down, the suit highlighting all the visible drathonians on his HUD, and he selected one, aiming right for the middle of it's skull, which, as per Jack's modifications, was armored. That was somewhat of a taboo for real drathonians, here it only added to their difficulty.

Kai tapped Steven, pointing at a marine with no cover, and motioned for him to watch the man's back. setting himself back on his target, he let the suit's AI fine-tune his own aim. In a couple seconds, all hell would break lose. Kai inhaled deeply, then exhaled just as the countdown was about to finish

6... 5... 4... 3... 2...

...1!

The word was hardly perceivable over the sudden battlecry that rose up over the Terrans. In response, a wave of fire from a thousand different directions came pounding down on their positions. Men were knocked on their backs, HUDs directing them to the nearest respawn points. Jack himself went bounding over the edge of the wall, not even aware of the system link that Kai had initiated with his battle suit. With the excitement of battle, all thought of strategy was thrown to the wayside. All that remained was him and the creature he would kill. God help the man he mistook as a Drathonian.

He went streaking up through a mound of debris, leaping through the gaping hole of an exposed foundation that a squad of Drathonians had taken position in. The suit he was in was fast... almost too fast. For the first time in his life, Jacks body was reacting faster than he could tell it what to do. Half a dozen completely unsurprised lizards didn't even wait a second to fire at him, raising their weapons as if to question his newfound limits. The first one stood just feet away from him. In another step Jack was on it, bolting his duratanium fist through its face like a nail gun. His arm made a mechanical growl of satisfaction as he withdrew it from the shattered skull, charging the next target.

By now the rest of the group was reacting to try and match speed with him, but to no avail. The two farthest Drathonians were killed by sniper fire before they even got a shot off. The next two to engage Jack were sword wielding brutes. They swung down full force in perfect unison, and as they did so, Jack threw up his arms. Each blade grinded angrily against the ones built in to his armor. The creatures thrown off balance by their clumsy, oversized weapons, Jack made his move. The one to the left he pointed a hand at, and an intense pulse shot out of his forearm. It hit the creature full-force in the face, and it dropped its weapon in agony. The other he lunged towards, cleaving his arm right along the seam in its armor at the belly. The lizard stood motionless for a moment, coughed up a mouthful of blood, and collapsed in a heap. Jack turned to the still-dazed enemy, lifted his sugar, and sent a blast right through its neck.

Jack turned to face his final foe, who had waited patiently for him to finish his work. The massive Dragoon gave a toothy grin that could only be matched by Jacks own. It must have stood at least a foot and a half taller than any Drathonian Jack had ever seen, and its shoulders were proportionately bulkier. (God, he thought, the computer may make pudly AI, but they sure know how to build a Dragoon.) The creature threw down its weapon, as if relishing the thought of tearing Jack apart with its bare hands. Jack flashed his own devilish grin, throwing down his own rifle. They both stood there, cracking their necks for a moment, before the lizard threw its head up in a bellow and charged at him head on. Jack charged to meet it. The two came crashing into each other, knocking each other backwards despite the difference in size. The two warriors were back on their feet in an instant, and this time as they grabbed at each other, the massive Drathonian collapsed on Jack's shoulder. As he pushed the corpse off of himself, Jack withdrew the gleaming energy blade which he had just cleaved right into its belly with.

Jack straightened himself up, the haze of bloodlust temporarily lifting itself from him. He looked about, surveying his handiwork. Four down... 996 to go... He stumbled back up out of the exposed basement, curious as to how the battle around him was going.

...1!

The world exploded. Blasts of energy flying every direction, explosions which had been paused finished their destruction, large artillery shells whistled overhead, the noise and force even felt and heard though the Duratanium armor suits. Kai Released his breath fully, and, the instant he was still, pulled the trigger. A green blast far larger than a Usual Sugar's exploded from the barrel at frightening speed, killing the drathonian before it had a chance to even move. Kai looked for his next target, noting how quickly the nearby targets were disappearing, either by dieing or hiding. Kai followed Jack's progress, and followed him to a place where he cound see inside the building. Several blasts flew by the soldier, his HUD warning him of their approach and being nice enough to help him move fast enough to dodge.

Looking up again, Jack was in the building, outnumbered "Idiot" the Blond captain muttered to himself, taking two quick shots and downing two of them. When The big Dragoon and Jack began facing off, Kai hit the damn thing several times in the back, to little avail, then, the suit's AI pointed out a small weakness. At the moment Jack grabbed onto the Dragoon, Kai shot it in the neck, the combined actions severing several arteries and destroying the beast's spine, as well as most of his internal organs.

Wanting to test exactly what his design could do, Kai shouldered the "megasugar" as he had dubbed it, and set the actuators in his legs to full power, then sprang up, about twenty five feet in the air, to crash through a window, rolling to his feet. Checking the room before he moved on, Kai took up a position at another window. "the morons, weren't expecting me to have a vantage point like this" he chuckled, looking down at all those unprotected lizard backsides. all he had to do now was select one to kill...

Jack couldn't help but chuckle in interest as Kai bounded through the air. "Wonder if I can do that..." He muttered to himself as he scrolled through a list of interesting new commands on his battle suit. "Ah. Here we are." With a rumble of mechanical fury, Jack went bounding through the wall next to the window Kai had gone through, shaking his head a little from the blunt force of the impact. Kai was already across the room, taking careful aim through a shattered window. Jack laughed loudly at him. "Pretty cool tricks these suits have got, can't wait until they're ready for field action." With that he sprinted across the room, bounding through the window next to Kai.

Jack went flying through the air, balance gyros in his suite correcting his position to make sure he landed on his feet. He did just that, heavy duty stabilizers softening the impact as he kicked up a storm of dust and rubble around himself. He was in an open courtyard in the center of a building complex now, and by the looks of it, it was being used as an ammunition route. Bad idea for the Drathonians. A fortified position in the center of the plaza had been turned into a makeshift bunker, and Drathonians loaded down with ammo cartridges, explosives, and shells were sprinting back and forth out of it. At the far end of the courtyard was a second fortified position, flanking double doors leading into the building across the way. Drathonians flanked the doors and were piled into the windows.

Jack scanned over the scene as he emerged from the small crater he'd made, radioing Kai on his HUD. "Okay, cap'n, a few good shots into that munitions dump will blow it to hell, wait for me to get across the courtyard before you hit it." With that, Jack sprinted across the courtyard with the speed of an Olympian runner, dodging the fire coming at him from the two fortified positions. A couple small blasts hit his armor, making a dull tink and leaving a notable dent where the paint was now burnt off. This armor was even tougher than the Paladin suits. It would take a pulse cannon to get through this thing in one shot!

Jack finally reached the far end of the courtyard, diving through an abandoned window about 50 yards from the heavily guarded double doors. He sprang out into the hallway, meeting a hail of small arms fire from down the hall. Dodging most of it, he sprang into the room opposite. He'd been stupid enough to leave his sugar rifle abandoned on the ground back at the last battle. The strategy cogs finally starting to turn in his brain, he grinned, jumping across the room. He wheeled around, and went ramming through the thin wall of the civilian dwelling. He charged down the hall, barreling right through the walls. After about 50 yards, he turned left, and rammed into the wall in front of him. The wall gave way, and he slammed right into a Drathonian. They had been wise to the basic nature of his plan, but that didn't mean it wouldn't still work.

The first Drathonian flew into the opposite wall, Jack springing off of him in midair. He flew right into the belly of the next one over, his energy blade slicing through it like a knife through butter. The final one got a couple shots off at his exposed backside before he took a sharp spin low to the ground, cutting its feet off. His HUD announced the damage, and declared that he was now working at 80% health. He rolled his eyes at the videogame-based system. In real life, he'd probably have a good 400% health to work with. He didn't have time to mentally complain about it, however, before another 2 squads of Drathonians came bolting out of rooms just a few meters down the hall. Jack dodged into the nearest room, he thought, before any of them had a chance to spot him. "Kai, did you finish off that bunker? I need some cover fire here." he whispered harshly into his HUD.

...1!

The man Steven was covering went down with the first salvo of enemy fire, having taken a shot to the head. After that Steven had a reaction similar to Jack's but with a little more disgression. He dashed forward, running from cover to cover, still mostly unafraid as he was still unaware of the fact that getting hit does cause pain. So with enemy fire whizzing past him he made it to a stand of dense brush. Lifting his gun he opened fire on the enemy, and quickly score one, two, then three kills.
"This is more fun than I thought it would be!" he to a marine who had taken cover next to him.

Among the commands Jack scrolled through were quite a few interesting and useful ones. One that might pop out to him at the moment would be the "Clear room" override, which would set the suit to it's own devices and, well, clear a room. Jack, however, didn't even have time to find that command, as the lizards poured into the room, firing wildly about before Jack even had time to react. the suit did, of course, it's sensors throwing the suit into a few protocols meant to keep the wearer alive, and he would note his arms flying to cover his front, possibly against his will. it wasn't enough. even with the suit, the sheer amount of fire blowing into the room would have decimated a tank.

Kai swore. Loudly. Something he didn't do often. "JACK YOU F***ING MORON!" he yelled, as Jack ran by, into a literal hornets nest. "These things Aren't invincible you know!" he called, to deaf ears, Jack was in his zone, and, in a few seconds, would find himself in a lot of pain and another spot on the map. Kai had taken out the ammo dump allright, but it turned out to be a bad idea, As there were some pretty heavy munitions in it. On top of being obliterated by a mob of around 50 lizards, Jack('s body) was now crushed under a building. Kai had been luckier but not by much. The suit's reactions had gotten him away from the blast itself, but, like jack, he now had a building atop of him. Luckily, the building wasn't so big, but now Kai was immobile and had to find a way out.

All the Marine beside Steven said was "DUCK!" before lunging at him, knocking him out of the way of a rocket. As the shell exploded on a building behind the two, The marine snapped "Pay attention dumbass!" and proceeded to fire at the enemy whom had fired the rocket. All of a sudden, from about 90 yards away, there came an immense explosion that flattened several buildings. Perking up, and noting several signs of Terran soldiers within the ruined structures, he grabbed the Kerning man and dragged him towards the building. Rather quickly, too, the suits made things feel like feathers to carry.

... Jack stumbled over, tumbling out of the rear end of a dropship. Whuddafug? The last thing he remembered was a gang of lizards charging his room and his suit locking up on him. He was a bit confused as to the rest. Standing up, he turned and picked up a spare sugar sitting on the rack. Turning back to the battlefield, Jack saw the cloud of debris that marked where the ammo dump had been. Luckily they had just begun, so it was only a short sprint from where the spawn points were.

Jack came to the edge of the rubble, looking over the collapsed buildings uncertainly. He was pretty sure Kai had been in this one... He accessed the still-open teammate com link between the two of them. "Kai, you okay? I think I got killed, the suit locked up on me or something and I lost control of it. Real weird. Where are you?" His HUD was telling him that Kai was somewhere just ahead of him, but all that was there was the ruins of a collapsed building. The com was still open, so Kai was probably still alive. It was a bit difficult for Jack to think in less stringent terms of alive and dead. It made his head spin a bit.

Somewhat muffled by white noise, static, and the obvious blackage of the signal by rubble, Kai repied "I think.... I'm Alive.... It's hard.... To.. to... Hard to breathe... Also... WHO THE HELL TURNED OFF THE SAFETIES!" He managed to roar, before going into a fit of wheezing as he tried to get air to enter his lungs. with the safeties turned off, if they didn't get Kai out soon, the pressure the simulator was exerting on him would kill him for real.

"Huh?" Jack muttered into the com, "Whaddaya mean? The safety protocols should be fine. I just respawned...." Hearing Kai struggling for breath, he looked out at the cloud of dust that marked where he was trapped. "Hang on Kai, I'm on my way." he said, jumping into the combat zone and sprinting towards the collapsed building Kai was under.

What Jack couldn't know was that his program only had the safeties on for Weapons damge, environmental dangers, such as a building falling on top of you, had been turned off. So, Kai was under the "rubble", Getting squished to death. He tried moving a little, shifting so he was closer to the nearest source of light, but that only caused more of the rubble to collapse. A puff of soot washed into the air as the pile became shorter.

Jack was quickly to the site of the... accident. Looking around the hazy wreckage, he spotted a patch of movement. Running over to it, he flung his empowered arms into the ground, hauling up several feet of debris and flinging it aside. "Kai!" he shouted down into the wreckage.

"Down here Dingbat!" Kai managed to wheeze, sticking an arm into the open space cause By Jack's digging. Suddenly, an artillery shell landed nearby, disentegrating a decent portion of the rock, and thankfully making wuite a bit of it slide away from the Captain. Able to breathe easier now, the green-armored man began clawing his way toward his friend, who suddenly came under fire by a few Drathonians.

"Well, $#!t." Jack grumbled, firing wildly in the direction the enemy fire was coming from with one hand while he grabbed Kai's exposed arm with the other. With a tremendous heave, he pulled the man out of the wreckage. Getting a better look at his surroundings, he realized that the fairly flat terrain of the collapsed building wasn't exactly the best place to be. "Come on!" he half-shouted to Kai, keeping a hold on his arm as he pulled him to his feet and started running for cover.

Suddenly able to breathe, Kai felt much better. As he was pulled up to his feet again, the captain was suprised to note he managed to keep a grip on the modified Sugar that the suit used. He looked around, and the suit gave him warning of the incoming fire from a nearby building. As he ran, kai aimed toward the point of fire, the suit compensating for the movement the whole time, and fired several shots. A small tine confirmed hits, and two or three of the lines of tracers stopped flying at them. That was about when the luck ran out. a whistling sound was heard above, and Jack's and Kai's suits both beeped warning of incoming heavy munitions. A split second later, the shell slammed into the ground behind the two soldiers, sending them flying into the wall Jack had hoped to use as a cover. Kai's suit noted that it had been compromised, and the seals had broken, but it was mostly intact, if not very mobile. Jack's had less damage, the faceplate had smahed, throwing shrapnel into the Marine's face, as well as one arm being dislocated from the suit.